Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri (2 October 1904-11 January 1966) was Prime Minister of India from 9 June 1964 to 11 January 1966, interrupting Gulzarilal Nanda's two terms.

Biography
Lal Bahadur Shastri was born in Mughalsarai, British India (now Uttar Pradesh, India) in 1904. He joined Mahatma Gandhi's call for non-cooperation in his first satyagraha in 1921, and dropped his studies. He resumed his degree afterwards, and graduated in 1926 with a first-class degree (shastri), from which he took his name. Deeply impressed and influenced by Gandhi's ideals, he became a loyal follower, first of Gandhi, and then of Jawaharlal Nehru. He joined the latter's government and became one of Nehru's principal lieutenants, first as Minister for Railways from 1951 to 1956, and then in a variety of other functions, including Minister of Home Affairs. He was chosen as Nehru's successor owing to his conciliatory manner. He was a remarkably skillful politician, and defended India well against attack in the Second Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. The war was formally ended in the Tashkent Agreement of 10 January 1966; he died the following day, still in Tashkent, of a heart attack.